Building some size O guitars-- tips? trying to fasttrack it (having a baby)

[Matthew Lau]

Dear MIMF,

I've been off for quite a while...and been quite humbled by life.
Somehow, I married a special lady that requested a guitar.
We'll be having our first kid in July.

I've been given a fairly blank check on this build, but I'd like to fast track this as much as possible.
I was planning on going with a premade neck, premade bridge, premade fretboard, premade tools, premade molds/templates/bending machines...and maybe a semicustomized rosette (I'm thinking of Paua between BWB banding).

Mind giving me tips?

I don't trust myself to be all that coordinated or talented, so plan to have a pretty big margin of error.
Most of my energy is on my business and my patients.
That, and my guitar building mentor died.

[Matthew Lau]

Also, was wondering if you'd recommend Falcate bracing, or keeping it simple.

[Randy Davidson]

I am a scratch builder, but for your situation one of the SM acoustic kits might be an option? Just a thought.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Hi Matthew,
Congratulations on the new Family! What type (size, model) of guitar does your wife desire?
For a steel string guitar, X braced guitars of the Martin designs are hard to go too far wrong with. P.M. me if I can be of any help to you.

[Barry Daniels]

Falcate bracing takes a lot of extra work. If you want a really simple guitar, build one without any binding. I made an all mahogany guitar body sans binding and was able to knock it out in a couple of weeks. And that is fast for me. Another short cut would be to use store bought kerfing. Also, a butt joint, bolt on neck would help.

[Alan Carruth]

I'm going to trot out one of my favorite quotes from British designer and wood worker David Pye:
" Where the problem is old, the old solutions will nearly always be best (unless a new technique has been introduced) because it is inconceivable that all of the designers of ten or twenty generations will have been fools"

I have not seen a big rush toward falcate guitar designs coming from established makers or factories, so I surmise that the design, while it almost certainly has advantages, is not all that much of an improvement. Unless you're sure that you want to build the sort of powerful guitar that Gore advocates, and like the timbre of his falcate guitars (I can't say that I've ever heard one), I'd stick with the old standby.

Binding on the top edge makes sense, to protect the soft wood against dings.

Keep it light. A smaller top can be stiff enough with less thickness, and the bracing can be both narrower (I'd use 1/4") and lower. You may find that you only want one tone bar, and one finger brace on each side should be fine. I'd make the sides thinner, too: say about 1.7mm (~.067"), which will facilitate bending a tight waist and still be stiff enough. Other than that; KISS.

[Freeman Keller]

I have made three "small concert" aka "parlor" guitars from the Scott Antes plans and using short scale premade necks from LMII. One was for my daughter, and a friend's daughter, I kept the third for myself. At one point in the past LMII offered this as an option for their kit wizard. The Antes plans are conventional but some folks feel is is over braced. I scalloped the braces significantly from the plans but did not do any real voicing. Note that the Antes plans are drawn as tho you were looking thru the top plate rather than from the inside - it is easy to build a left handed guitar by mistake. Since my guitars are kind of "girly" I did a lot of blingy inlay, pretty much Martin style 42. If you want more info let me know, I think it is the perfect guitar for a special woman

[Matthew Lau]

I am a scratch builder, but for your situation one of the SM acoustic kits might be an option? Just a thought.

I'm pretty much doing a SM kit, but with my own prethicknessed top, back and sides...

[Matthew Lau]

It's good to hear from my old friends btw!

How are you all doing?

[Matthew Lau]

On a side note, I'm trying to decide between a walnut neck and mahogany neck.

Nice inlay btw.

[Matthew Lau]

Hey Clay!

We tried a bunch of guitars at Schoenberg's in Mill Valley, and she gravitated towards a tasty Martin 0-21 14 fret.
https://www.om28.com/ProductDetail?product=P230322001

I was thinking about doing a 12 fret version of it a-la-Norman Blake.
To celebrate her Santa Cruz heritage, I was gonna do Walnut and Redwood....although tbh, the walnut is probably American Black Walnut, and not Claro. The other guitar will be for a friend as a "test mule" to work the kinks out of. It'll be walnut/spruce...I think Carpathian spruce, since I once wanted to be a classical guitar builder.

On an aside, Randy Angella had remarked that the top was from the Carter log....I dunno, I just bought it on sale over a decade ago..

-Matt

ps. I'd had her try out a bunch of guitars from different makers at different places including Lowdens, some small luthiers, Bourgious, Huss and Dalton, Gibson, etc....it's sorta magical when you see a guitar where the player just has sympatico.

[Matthew Lau]

Hey Freeman,

Those are gorgeous! Any tips for working with MOP/Paua inlay?

I was thinking of insetting a custom rosette with Paua/BWB like Gustav Fredell's https://pin.it/4wuo4vV
However, I was going to do an internal inlay to avoid making a blatant knock-off....and because I'm a dentist.
It'd be a nice touch to use some tinted composite or handpiece cut MOP as an accent.

My wife's birthday is Pi-day, so the Fibonacci sequence is dear to my heart.

[Freeman Keller]

Hey Freeman,

Those are gorgeous! Any tips for working with MOP/Paua inlay?

Thank you. My daughter's spirit animal is the blue darner dragonfly so that became the headstock inlay

Andy DePaule cut the pearl for me, I routed the cavity with a dremel router. I buy the precut pau abalone from Andy or StewMac. When I glue the binding and all the purfling lines I put a piece of teflon where the pearl will go. I also have become a convert to tabling the binding in place without any glue, then "tack welding" it with drops of water thin CA. Pull the tape and run a bead of thin CA all the way around. Pull the teflon and install the pearl, flood that with CA and bingo, Style 42 inlay.

[Matthew Lau]

Update:

BOught a bunch of stuff from John Hall of BLues Creek Guitars:

Gobar deck (I said I'd build one...but it's been 20 years, and I haven't)
Bending machine and form
Outside mold
O-14 template.

Also, bought a nice set of prethicknessed walnut from the 1960's off an ebay guy.

[Matthew Lau]

Just an update:
Got the parts and molds, but I got sidetracked working on putting together a dust collector.

https://forums.woodnet.net/showthread.php?tid=7348084

Anyways, I'm blessed to have a wife willing to cut galvanized conduit in a ghetto Home Depot on date night.